Identification of an open crack in a beam using an a posteriori error estimator of the frequency response functions with noisy measurements

This paper presents a robust damage assessment technique for the nondestructive detection and size estimation of open cracks in beams. The damage detection, based on the constitutive relation error updating method, is used for the identification of the crack's location and size in a simply-supported beam. The transverse open crack is modeled through the introduction of the flexibility due to the presence of the crack, i.e. by reducing the second moment of area of the element at the crack's location. This identification algorithm is illustrated through numerical examples involving different positions and sizes of a transverse open crack. We show that the detection of damage and the identification of the crack's size and position can be achieved with satisfactory precision, even if 20% noise has been added to the simulations and less than 5% of all displacements have been measured. (C) 2008 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.